In the packaging of fragile food products, such as cookies, molded plastic trays incorporated in an outer bag have been used to support the cookies. The trays typically contain a center divider spaced from the side panels. Both the dividers and the side panels have sloped walls which form channels or troughs on either side of the divider in which rows of cookies are supported.
Such trays have a number of drawbacks. Although the plastic molding operation allows them to readily take any desired shape, the trays have to be shipped in molded form to the packaging plant. Even when nested, the number of trays which can be shipped in a truckload is limited, resulting on overall higher shipping costs than desired. In addition, the cost of the resin used in forming the trays has increased significantly and can be expected to continue to increase, which will make the use of plastic trays impractical from a cost standpoint at some point in the future. Separate from cost considerations is the threat of legislation against the packaging of food products in certain types of plastics due to the possible absorption into the food of gases released from the plastic material.
It would be highly desirable to be able to substitute paperboard trays for the plastic trays now in use in order to overcome the possible health threat and to reduce the cost of the trays. Ideally, such trays would be formed from paperboard blanks capable of being shipped to the packaging location in flat condition, which would enable a great many more trays to be produced from a single truckload. The problem, however, is to design a paperboard tray which can be readily and rapidly formed from a single flat sheet of minimal size and which has the desired final shape.